A Space Bridge Too Far
Summary: Lee-Zard has the brilliant plan to modify a Space Bridge to steal the stolen Transformer bodies from the Azrael's subspace storage zone. Inspector Goole is not happy. '''Entrance to Autobot City ''The massive structure of Metroplex looms in front of you, a gigantic battlefortress and Earth headquarters of the Autobots. Large towers relay information from around the world and the large communications tower in the center keeps Metroplex in contact with the rest of the known universe. Security cameras and gun emplacements surrounding the entrance make sure that only those who are welcome enter. Scorch marks and small holes in the wall are reminders of the last battle here at Autobot City. To the north is the landing pad for flights to and from Earth. Sam Waverly clutches his designs in his hand. "Requires.. modifications. To these specifications.." He has trouble standing, propping himself up with his IV stand. Monstereo lounges, listening to multiple radio frequencies... all of them actually. But don't worry, he's internalizing the feed. He glances over at the gathering. "Eh.... what's up, doc?" Lee Zipperman makes his way outside, making some adjustments to his calculations in his head as he walks. Lee-Zard tries to peek at Soundwave's designs, but also tries to prop up the obviously weakened humancon. "You be doing ok, Soundwave?" He asks, helping the larger person along. "Jetfire, you be confidant in my translations?" The young red-head walks into the autobot city, arms crossed and grumbling. Sadly his device did get 'something', but it was so short and it was so weak, that he couldn't make heads or tails and worse off—the computer pretty much melted down internally before he could pull off any of the data to further understand what he saw on the monitors. Turnover then stops as he notices someone altering the Space Bridge and raises a brow. He then walks over, "What is going on?" He asked with a cerious sound in his voice and looking over what they were doing. Joe Bumble walks out and watches. "Is there anything I can do?" He asks as he walks about, uncompletely sure how well he will help being almost retarded technical wise Sam Waverly drags on over to the big metal doors. "Any technically inclined, large enough to carry out delicate modification of controls?" Monstereo raises a hand. "Yo, right here." He strolls over. "Me, Lee-Zard can handle the small stuff." He pipes up. He points to his big buddy, Monstereo, unafflicted by this humanization. "Big Rock Daddy M can bring the science as well as he can bring the rock!" Lee-Zard adds happily. Sam Waverly looks up at Monstereo. "Acceptable.." he holds up his datapad to Monstereo. "Will require.. exotic modifications to internals. Extra sensor-transmitter arrays. Acquire materials." He peers at Lee-Zard. "Will require additions to inside of terminus.. assist me inside." Turnover hrms as he gets ignored and gets right on front of Sam, maybe the guy would remember him from the other day or so when he helped out, "Ya know, when a guy asks, what's up-- this is also an indication I cna help. I have knowledge in advance science and mathimatical formulas-- along with advance robotics." Lee Zipperman sticks to Soundwave like glue, since he is definatly not an expert at space bridge modifications... He's content to do as Soundwave directs, without any autobot preconceptions that Soundwave will doublecross them or go evil or anything. Sam Waverly looks blankly at Turnover for a moment, then shrugs. "You assist as well. Work will go quicker." Sam Waverly hands out a couple data chips to Lee-Zard and Turnover. Dominic Duncan looks to Bumblebee. "You assist Lee. do exactly what he tells you. and yes I'm confident." Turnover is about the same way, after all, Sam didn't seem like such a bad guy, so why would he be upset—then again, he apparently had gone off and forgotten it was Soundwave who confused Teletran and had nearly BitBucket crushed—so much for youth and more important matters on his mind. He looked the chips and nodded his head, "Ok.." And gets to work in a quick fashion.. but man it was times like these his missed Bit.... His faithful Orbatron. His computer of his own creation with a great personality and was always great help when it came to stuff like this. Joe Bumble nods and moves to Lee-zard, smiling to the little human. "I am going to help you and Soundwave." He says, looking to soundwave for a moment before paying complete attention to Lee. Monstereo takes the datapad and reviews it... "Betty Crocker, eat your heart out. Gonna whip me up one hella good cake tonight." He wanders off to procure needed parts, continuing to read the plans. Yay, chips! Not the eating kind, unfortunatly, but Lee is a geeky little junk who likes fancy tech. He loosk back over his shoulder at Bumblebee, and offers him a grin. "Okie, you come help Lee-Zard!" He says happily, and plugs the chip into his datapadd, giving the schematics a once-over to familiarize himself with the plan. Sam Waverly pulls out another device from his pocket, part of his ad hoc comm array, and starts bringing up information on it. "Will also require modification to programming. Been writing targetting module, must add to systems." He looks around. "All jobs clear?" Turnover gives the thumbs up, "Clear here!" Dominic Duncan stands next to Soundwave and starts to program. "just tell me what to do, Soundwave....and....I'm also going to think up a program to be able to wipe this stuff. You know why, Soundwave." he says tapping away. "Yupyup!" Lee replies excitedly. "Me hope Lee-Zard's body still mint in box, me wanted to put the stickers on myself." He says, and scampers over towards a panel of the Space Bridge interior. "Okie, Bee, you help Lee with this panel!" He instructs. Lee is used to being tiny, but not /this/ tiny. Turnover looks over what he needs to do. He pulls off his jacket, tossing it to the side, before he begins work. He opened the pannel and went at it, not looking at the data-pad again, till he was done, checking it over. Then went to the next, wash-rinse, repeat. Sam Waverly shrugs at Dominic. "Can always rebuild spacebridge, yes? Plans on file? Do not attach interdimensional teleportation device to central computer, reasons obvious." He hobbles inside the main compartment, searching for a particular panel. Dominic Duncan continues to tap away....and thinks of something WHILE typing. 'Soundwave.....You have your own plans of the Space bridge....correct?" Sam Waverly snorts, derisively, as if that were both obvious and an affront. "Correct." Dominic Duncan nods quietly. "Good. write up a program to blow all Current Space Bridges." Joe Bumble nods and begins to try and help him with the panel. "Here, want me to lift it or what?" He asks the tech genius. Mark Dowell walks in, hands in his jacket pockets. He looks about at the humanized robots with a raised eyebrow, and when someone says, "blow all current Space Bridges," he shouts, "SAY WHAT!?" Sam Waverly turns and looks at Dominic funny. "Humor.. joke.. kidding, yes?" Monstereo is elsewhere, acquiring high tech stuff. He schmoozes the Autobot supplies clerk, finally sealing the deal with a bribe of a VIP pass good for a night out at Cybertron's second hippest club. He makes his way deeper into the stores of Autobot City, passing many crates. One of which s a tall skinny one written with some Italian word "FRA-GI-LE"... and another with a charred black bird on the side. Finally he reaches the sensor-transmitter arrays. Dominic Duncan looks at Soundwave. "no. One we all get our bodies back, I imagine these twits will try for a second crack at us. If they try, we're gonna make them pay for it....by waiting for their forces to start over....and we'll blow them remotely. They'll tear themselves apart in transit." Lee Zipperman pries the panel off with aid from Bumblebee, and peers into the mess of cables and conduits beneath. Lee lays down his backpack, and pulls out some tools. He clutches a flashlight in is teeth, grinning at Bumble. "Tees be ho me wowk 'est!" He says, before diving into the nest of cables and wires, crawling around until he locates the power junction he needs. He gets to work, making the required connections to rerout the power supply inside the bridge. "Unless there not using space-bridge technology and instead are able to actually fold space and time." Turnover remarks as he works, over hearing Jetfire. "After all, if they have done what they did, then they are probably a far superiour race to us-- wait.." He pauses, "..Just what are you trying to do?" Ding ding to Turnover, welcome to the top floor. Sam Waverly frowns. "Energy contained may be too great. Possibly destroy spacebridge, possibly also destroy Autobot City, San Francisco." Sam Waverly adds, "Causing explosions of interdimensional teleportation devices markedly unwise." Mark Dowell scowls as he approaches Duncan. "Well, that's very clever, but do you have any idea how hard it is to make just one space bridge? The number of rare metals of substances that go into it, the time and labor involved in building it, and testing it to make sure it won't rip its passengers apart at the molecular level? As a quartermaster, I cannot approve of such a wasteful measure." Monster Truck gets his cargobay loaded up with everything on the list and then drives back through the rows of crates, passing one with dried seaweed on top of it and bound in strong chains and printed on the side "Ship to Horlicks University Via Julia Carpenter. Arctic Expedition June 19, 1834" He gives the stores clerk a friendly honk and then drives his way back through the city to the Spacebridge. Sam Waverly shrugs at Dominic. "You want to end up explaining destruction of west coast Americas to Terran population?" He smirks and plugs his datapad into an outlet behind a removed panel on the interior of the bridge. Lee Zipperman makes the last connection to the power supply feeds inside the spacebridge, and crawls back out of the panel he had removed... Greasy and filthy, but the little junkion doesn't seem to mind. "Me, Lee finished at this station!" He calls out, while gesturing for Bumble to help him replace the panel. Monster Truck unloads the stuff and transforms again. "I go to work." And indeed he does so, starting the large tall people's part of the work needed on the bridge. The rugged monster truck legend in the making makes a clickety-ratcheting series of sounds as it transforms into the Junkion robot Monstereo. Turnover finishes, "I gotta all areas done on these chips." One thing had to be said, Turnover worked fast, but what to be expected from Percy's son. "What's next..." Though he had a feeling he missed the explination of what was going on, yay for curse of getting envolved in work. Joe Bumble sets the panel back in place and follows Lee. "Alright what else do you need me to do?" Lee Zipperman was inside the space bridge's guts, or lse he would have answered Turnover sooner. "We me making modifications to the space bridge to try and steal back our bodies! The aliens have them stuck in subspace, so we be trying to use the spacebridge to open a subspace conduit to the extradimensional coordinates of the cybertronain bodies." He says to Turnover. Lee scampers over to Soundwave, peering under the larger 'human''s arm. "We almost ready to rock? Do we have an external monitoring system hooked up and ready? Me want to be able to monitor the subspace folds in real-time." Sam Waverly coughs a couple times, gasping for breath in between, then settles down and leans heavily against the wall. "Nearing completion of program modification." He looks out toward Monstereo. "Finishing installation? Attach leads six-eight-alpha and six-eight-beta to target acquisition device.. display screen. Will assist in determining exact target." Monstereo cues up the Stargate SG! theme while installing sensor-transmitter arrays. Pretty basic stuff. If you told Frenzy or Rumble how to do it they could do it. :p "Ow-ow ohhhhhhh-yeeeah...." Turnover picks up his jacket and ties around his waist, "What happens if they pick up we are trying to do this? They could send a back-signal and cause this area to explode or the space-bridge to become unstable. There are several ways they could get in our way or cause massive damage." He remarks and steps back looking over to the others. Now.. he was getting a bad feeling about this. This was an alien race who had there bodies, was killing off the humanized cybertronians, and was causing them technological trouble—this.. could end badly. Dominic Duncan is still typing. "Just keeping all of our afts out of the fire Soundwave." he then sighs to Markdown. "I don't care how long it takes or how much material it takes to build these things. They can be rebuilt, markdown.......Our life sparks cannot." Jayson Redfield is here, having gotten into the city with some...'assistance' from Turnover. Hey, he's rather fond of Turnover, so what can he say? For now he just stays off to the side, trying to keep himself as inconspicuous as possible. He's watching apprehensively, as if expecting something to go wrong. Sam Waverly taps a few buttons. "Alert when final connections are made." A glance to Turnover, and a shrug. "Take risks or all die anyway. All others exit terminus," he then says to the assorted few inside. "Will monitor first run from here, make adjustments so target body not disintegrate. Volunteer?" Dominic Duncan looks to Bumblebee. 'we got into this mess of our own free will....shall we?" Soundwave taps a few buttons. "Alert when final connections are made." A glance to Turnover, and a shrug. "Take risks or all die anyway. All others exit terminus," he then says to the assorted few inside. "Will monitor first run from here, make adjustments so target body not disintegrate. Volunteer?" Jetfire looks to Bumblebee. 'we got into this mess of our own free will....shall we?" Markdown grumbles, "Right, nobody ever cares about the cost. That's why it costs so much! And who picks up the bill? Guys like me." He sighs discontentedly. Monstereo makes the last cord hook up and rechecks everything over. "Check heck check check check.... and check." He gives the thumbs up to Sam and drops his red goggles into place over his optics. "Well if we die, we die trying to reclaim what is ours." Joe Bumble says. "Have faith." He says with a chuckle. "Dey aliens want to take over the whole planet, and everyone on it." Lee-Zard says, determined. "Plus we all gunna die. Waiting around not do anything, we we do something instead of nothing." He says, and makes his way out of the space bridge... One does not want to be caught inside when there's a influx of matter being shunted in. He pauses for a moment, deep in thought. "Me, Lee-Zard's body probaly be the easiest to build again, if it not get back in one piece. Lee-Zard's body also smallest." "Death isn't what I'm affraid of.." Turnover remarks with a frown, "Its what they will do to /us/ in the result of our retalitation-- after all, they could take our whole base-- or maybe the whole human population.. what if they altered the enviroment of this world?" Monstereo gives Lee a gentle pat on the shoulder. "Atta boy." "Death isn't what I'm affraid of.." Turnover remarks with a frown, "Its what they will do to /us/ in the result of our retalitation-- after all, they could take our whole base-- or maybe the whole human population.. what if they altered the enviroment of this world?" Sam Waverly chuckles at Lee. "Trust safety of body to Decepticon? Very brave." He makes a few adjustments. "Systems reporting complete. Exit Terminus." Turnover heads out in a quick run, then slides across the ground to a stop, turning back to face the space-bridge, he pulls down his goggles over his eyes, mostly using them as shades. "Either way, I suppose this is.. our only choice..." Lee Zipperman smile up at Monstereo, his friend, brother, and father-figure. "Me is happy to help. Plus, if you build Lee-Zard again, me gets to be a DINOSAUR, right?" He says with a grin. Monstereo gives the thumbs up. "If that's what you want." Dominic Duncan looks to Soundwave. "I'll give it a try. someone needs to do this." Sam Waverly stands just inside the Terminus, off to the side a bit, with his data device plugged into some tertiary outlet near the floor. "Initiate powerup sequence. Then activate homing routine on mark." Sam Waverly types in a few adjustments to the system, on his datapad. Monstereo silently marvels at how smart it was to think of using the Spacebridge as a way to access the massive subspace the aliens use. Monstereo shoulda thunk it himself, what with having that handy dandy education in subspace technology. Darn Tetris addiction. Dominic Duncan looks to bumblebee. "come on. We tried this to figure it out....let's try this to undo it." he then looks to Lee. "you too." Jayson Redfield is still watching, and still keeping out of the way. Mostly, he's worried about Turnover. But, he's not saying anything. Lee Zipperman squeezes in to look at the screen, his face a mix of excitement and trepidation. Hardly an expert on subspace folds, he can only compare the imagery on the screen to films he's downloaded. "Bring it on, Soundwave. Pedal to the metal! Let's ge this show on the road!" Joe Bumble nods. "Gladly. I would give my life to help." He says as he walks to Dominic. "What do you need me to do?" Sam Waverly checks and doublechecks his readout, then taps a button and says, "Mark." Dominic Duncan says, "Just stand in here I imagine." Turnover just watches, after all, his device melted down due to lack of power and over-heating. "..good luck.." He whispers, his arms over his chest getting tighter. He was—concerned, worried, a few emotions that were stronger then when he was a droid. He was.. frightened.. scared.. Sam Waverly told everyone else to leave the Terminus, and won't activate the device if people are still inside! Dominic Duncan moves out then. Has it worked? The monitor array sits, showing only angry fizzing static, as if the buzzing of a million electronic wasps. And then the noise starts to dissipate, vanishing to show a blurry, low definition image. The image clears slightly, flashes of purple and blue across it until... ...it seems to break through into the subspace realm that the aliens call Oord Space, a purple vortex, framed by powerful blasts of electricity. And there, hanging motionless in the air, can be seen on the screen the lifeless bodies of all the Transformers Monstereo oooohs and ahhhhs. "Gold star for your Science Project... Lets see if we can move on to the Nationals, squad!" Jayson Redfield stares in awe. He casts a glance toward Turnover, still silent as he continues to observe what's happening. Sam Waverly's fingers go to work on his datapad, the humanized Decepticon controlling variables, adjusting parameters, and adding more beeps and whistles to an already growing cacophony of SCIENCE! Lee Zipperman bounces excitedly. "Ooo, ooo! Me found Waldo!" He pipes up with a sly smile. He finger trails out a fat little tail on a tiny silouetted body. "There be me, Lee-Zard! Keen gear! So we definatly founded them... but can we retrieve them? Me onder if it be like those arcade things with the claw and the awesome plushies..." Turnover's eyes go wide behind the goggles and then pulls them up, "..Incrediable..." He was perhaps more interested in what they were in then finding there bodies. Mark Dowell leans into the screen, gaping. "Wow... that's... that's all of us! Right there! Hey... I... think I see me!" He boggles at his lifeless body, slowly spinning around, arms and legs splayed out. "Geeze. It's like looking at my own dead body..." At Soundwave's ministrations, the screen zooms in, flickering over the bodies of various Transformers. Galvatron, Markdown, Hot Spot, they're all there. And the screen focuses on the reptilian form of Lee-Zard, as it hangs motionless amongst the crackling, hissing void "Its to bad they are.. an agressive race. I bet they could teach us all kinds of things." Turnover remarks with a smirk. He takes note of all who is there at last, however—doesn't see Bit.. which means his little orbatron probably was destroyed, in some ways, also trying to locate his own form as well.. might as well right? Sam Waverly watches events unfold from a window in his data device. "All have been great help," he murmurs to himself, before pushing a button to insert a patch of errant code into the Spacebridge processing systems. "They actually have been fairly passive in thier takeover... Masquerading as humans , for example, when they could have taken the planet by force." Lee-Zard replies to Turnover, distracted log enough to miss Soundwave doing something different... Joe Bumble isnt distracted. He saw the transformers' bodies an immediatly paid back attention to Soundwave, not trusting the Decepticon with the retrieval of his body or any other Autobot body. As the code is input into the monitor screens, the focus zooms in on Lee-Zard as it floats there, calculations running over the side of the screen, data nodes humming to life and input calculations throbbing, as the lighting on the screen gets slightly more violent As Sam continues to make adjustments, the main screen flickers a couple times. Perhaps the connection almost failed, or perhaps there was a pocket of subspace.. interference.. stuff. But then it's back, and strong as ever. Calculations continue to run on the side of the screen, and little bars move back and forth like changing graphs. "Oh look, there be me!" Lee-Zard pipes up, feelig rather odd, looking at his body all by it's lonesome. His expression becomes slighly less exciting as the lightning becomes more violent. "Why's is doing that? When does it send me back?" Mark Dowell, not much of a technician and who sometimes even has trouble with the screensavers on his computer, blurts out, "Uh... that, um, is that supposed to happen? With the lightning?" Monstereo has been monitoring readings as well from his tall giant robot vantage point. "What arrrgh you doing?" "Calm down. It could be a mess up. If Soundwave does destroy it, then we can throw him in there with the bodies." Joe Bumble says, watching Soundwave and every move he does like a hawk. Watches the lightning, "Looks like they are sending an interferance or we are losing the signal." Turnover remarks as he looks over to Sam. As the image focuses on Lee-Zard, the crackling builds to a whining, and then as if a flood-gate bursting open, the console literally EXPLODES in a shower of sparks, a huge bolt of lightning arcing directly towards the nearby Soundwave as LEDs and lights pop and melt, circuits fusing and the monitor imploding, the feedback arcing into the spacebridge, which also becomes alive with lightning and noise and crackling and sparks until... ...There is a large *POP* and all the lights simultaniously go out Turnover flinches when everything goes *BOOM*, apparently same thing that happened back at the EDC.. maybe.. "I think-- they know what we are trying to do.. cause that is kinda what happened to my terminal back at the EDC.. it.. melted.." He slumps his shoulders.. so much for tries, at least Soundwave got further. Mark Dowell says, from somewhere in the darkness, "You mean THEY did this? Oh, man, alright, I changed my mind about the space bridges, let's blow 'em to hell." He begins to paw around for something to hold onto. Dominic Duncan looks to Soundwave. "Get any information on that." Jayson Redfield winces. "Oh, man..." He slips closer, coming up behind Turnover. "You okay?" he murmurs. As the backup lights come up—emergency flashing red, of course—Sam, who was standing just inside the door, can be seen to wobble a few moments, just in front of the hulking form of a standing Cybertronian, form masked by the shadows inside the terminus. It looks for a moment like Sam is going to step out, but there's the sound of an exhale and the man goes limp, collapsing through the open doorway. About two seconds later, the Cybertronian form inside the bridge has a similar problem, and topples out the open doorway, landing facefirst on the floor (and possibly on or near anyone who doesn't seek to get out of the way). The blue and steel-grey form of Soundwave is unmistakable. Offline, lying on the floor. The innocuous-looking tape-deck rapidly unfolds and grows to immense proportions, becoming the Decepticon Communicator, Soundwave! Bumblebee succeeds in grasping Soundwave, throwing him off-balance. Turnover jumps about ten feet, well, not literly and spins around in a snap with his leg up and his hands in like.. some kinda crane position, yea—like he could really do kung-fu. He blinks a few times, "..Jayson? What are you doing here?" He blinks again, those gold eyes staring as he calms down and looks back at the space-bridge, "Huh?" He notices soundwave.. and.. Sam. "..what the.." Joe Bumble leaps for the human form of Soundwave and tackles it out of the way just as the cybertronian falls on him. He curls up and once it crashes he yells. Dominic Duncan runs out of the way as Soundwave's body falls out of the space bridge. "By PRIMUS what was........" and he stares at the Cybertronian body. Lee Zipperman leaps way as the console begins to spark, cowering away as things go pop and sizzle and blam, covering his head from the shower of sparks. He looks up only when the lights come back on. He finds that the system worked... Sort of. Soundwave seems to be dead/dying/unconscious. Lee-Zard scampers over towards the human body that was Soundwave, checking it's vital signs... The human one, if Soundwave's neural patterns are still inside, would be more fragile and in more danger. Plus, nobody else around here knows how to check a pulse, apparantly. Sam Waverly tackles easily enough, body completely limp and nonresponsive. No vitals. Mark Dowell was just patting Turnover on the head when the lights come back on. "ACK!" he shouts as Turnover jumps. "Um, sorry about that, I couldn't see... Soundwave!?" He STARES at the prone communications officer.... both of them! "What the... I don't understand what's going on! Was there a malfunction!?" Soundwave isn't moving, either. Dominic Duncan says, "Of course you don't understand, Markdown. You're not a scientist...." he says before looking to the Space bridge. "We have something to go on now. It's a dangerous way to do it though."" "Get a medical scan of Soundwave, now!" Lee-Zard shouts, forgoing his usual kid-like chatter. "Check him for neural activity, core support systems." Lee-zard says, and starts some chest compressions of the prone form of Sam Waverly. "We need to know which body his mind is in and keep that body alive!" Jayson Redfield just grins. "I just thought I'd follow..." He stiffens at the sight of Soundwave, his body tensing. Yeah, he's still bitter about what happened on the Argosy, but it's not like he's going to attack a motionless Transformer. He stares. "What...just happened?" Monstereo wows. "Wow." See? he carefully walks to Soundwave's body. "Funny how the screen was so focussed on my Lee buddy's body... yet this is what popped out of the toaster. Hmmmm." He jabs the big blue body with a toe. He takes out his scanner as LEe suggests... "Oh I am fine." A voice calls out from the blue transformer. Joe Bumble grunts and climbs up from the space where he curled up to avoid being squished by the trnsformer. "Dont mind the fact I had a massive metal thing fall on me." Turnover stares, "I.. have no clue." He was still bothered by all this. Something, had his hair feeling like it was standing on end, after all—the power did go out, who knows what could have also lurked in with Soudnwave's body. Mark Dowell raises a brow at Duncan. "It's people like me that give people like you the funding you need for your little science projects. I may not be a super-genius, but I'm good at making money. Try to remember that." Monstereo raises a brow. "I said it before and I'll say it again... Wow." He crouches down and knocks on the side of Soundwave's head. "There may be life in there, but it ain' Dominic Duncan says, "the only 'funding' I require, Markdown...is a 'Go ahead' by a superior. I don't need your blasted money. that's why YOU like this planet. I like the people." he says before looking over Soundwave's body and.....helping up Bee." Monstereo raises a brow. "I said it before and I'll say it again... Wow." He crouches down and knocks on the side of Soundwave's head. "There may be life in there, but it ain't coherant... He needs to be put on a med table..." He looks around to the others. "You probably want to call some security... just in case he can somehow be de-vegified." Joe Bumble grunts as he gets helped up. "Thank you. Atleast you noticed that something big fell on me." He says as he gets off the cybertronian. "Well we got one body, a bunch more to go. Jayson Redfield stays close to Turnover. "Well," he mutters, "if there's any way I can help, just lemme know..." Dominic Duncan nods quietly. "yeah. Maybe we should rig up a TF collar like on Raindance to put on his neck. any external comm signals and he gets shocked." Turnover glances to Jayson, "..Not much you can do. However, I doubt Soundwave snagging his body back is going to look good on us, after all.. if they keep an invetory count, and one is missing, they will probably come back here looking for it." He closes his eyes, "..that wont be good either." To break the fourth wall for a moment, this TP staffer was once given nightmares as a child by the book Struwwelpeter. One of the tales in this German children's book told of Tom Suck-A-Thumb. Tom was warned by his mother not to suck his thumb. He promised not to, but then, when she went to the shops, he broke his word and sucked his thumb. And then in through the door of the house burst the figure of the tall red-legged scissorman, who chopped off Tom's thumbs with a gigantic pair of scissors. This staffer never sucked his thumb again. But that is perhaps the essence here. Of a word broken, of a vague, make believe threat coming true, and of the bogey man bursting into your house. For the moment the lights flicker on, trailed by the figures of some confused and worried gumby guards, is the figure of Inspector Goole, standing stock still, face a stony frown as he gazes admonishingly at those before him, his briefcase gripped in his hand. Inspector Goole has arrived. Mark Dowell pffts at Duncan. "Sure you do, and I have the materials requests to..." At the sudden appearance of Inspector Goole, Mark's train of thought is derailed. "Uh." Turnover sees the human there and his red pony-tail nearly does a cat thing and seems to nearly fluff out more. "..oh boy.." There was that wierd feeling of bad.. bad thing... He actually backed into Jayson and eeped, "..sorry.." Jayson Redfield slowly nods. "Well, I'm still here for you..." He jerks his head up at the appearance of Goole. "Who is *that*?!" As Turnover backs into him, he grabs his shoulders to hold him steady. Soundwave doesn't have the courtesy to get up. Or move. Monstereo looks up as he stands over the internally twitching Soundwave who is good for nothing but being a paperweight right now. "Ah ha! Inspector! Just in time to take my order. We need 20 cheeseburgers from White Castle... EACH!" That oughta keep them busy for the rest of the night. Soundwave? Inert. Waverly? Likely braindead. Spacebridge? Fried. Lee-Zard scared out of his mind by a guy in a grey suit? Priceless. The small form of Lee leaps back as Goole arrives, carrying his briefcase. The fact that the representative of the Azrael is here, now, is a bad sign. "Bad, bad, bad, very bad." "A badguy." Joe Bumble says as he walks to Inspector goole. "Let me guess, your one of the aliens." He asks. He tries to look intimidating but he is only an 8-10 year old child with blonde hair and green eyes. Dominic Duncan looks over the body of Soundwave....until he notices no one is looking at the body....and spies Goole. "Ah yes....The man with the demands." he says with a chuckle. "You'll be glad that I don't have my rifle with me." Inspector Goole simply stands there, seething as the light pours in from behind him. Suddenly his voice bursts out like a whipcrack. "BARBARIANS!" he hisses, stalking into the midst of the Transformers, fixing them each in turn. "TRAITORS. FILTH. LIARS." Each of them in turn, he points at, his hand shaking. "We offered you a deal, we offered you a generous deal, the chance to JOIN us, and this is how you respond? With treachery and trickery? I expected better!" With that, he slams his briefcase down on the ruined console Turnover looks over to Lee-zard and then at the Inspector, He inhales deeply and glances down at Soundwave's down bodied, "..we are so screwed..." When he calls them names, Turnover quickly chirps up, "It isn't like that! Honest!" Jayson Redfield curls his lips back in an angry snarl. "The way I understand it," he snaps at Goole, "*you* were the ones holding their bodies hostage! You're one to talk of 'treachery'!" Lee Zipperman cowers away from the big mean Inspector, scampering over to hide behind Monstereo's giant leg. "We wuz just trying to get back what belongs to us's. How can it be wrong to want back what is s'posed to be ours?" Mark Dowell glares at the Inspector. "Hey, jerk, where do you get off calling us traitors when you try to FORCE us to do your bidding? We don't want to be your damn slaves, conquering peaceful people just on your say-so! That's not the Autobot way!" Monstereo raises his red goggles off his face as he stares at the Goole impersonator. "Look pal, I talked to The Coz this morning. Called him up while he was enjoying breakfast with his great grandkids. Said he knows nothing of you id-jits and I should see f you wanna by some Jello pudding pops while you keep saying the darndest things." He shakes his head. "Go away and return the rest of the bodies. Resistance is floor tile." Peace Kepher walks into the area, wondering just /what/ has gone on here, and pauses sharply (albeit with a slight stumble) as she sees the Inspector stalking towards a ruined console. A glance at Soundwave's body and the space-bridge makes it clear what the Transformers had just done—which is exactly what she'd warned against and had been afraid they'd do anyways. /Oh no.../ she grimaces, but stays way back for now. There is nothing in Goole's face of the warmth he had the last time he was here. Neither is there anything similar in his voice. The diplomat is the embodiment of restrained rage as he opens his briefcase again, powering up the laptop within. He turns smartly on his heel to glare at those around them. "You? You who desecrated our crashed ship and disturbed the graves of our brave soldiers? You, who fight not for a higher purpose, but simply to spread your fetid, uncultured war across this galaxy? YOU? YOU who DARED to meddle in that which you do NOT understand, and so threatened the lives of OUR people still in Oord Space? Pathetic." He taps on the screen, as it shows a very, very good resolution image of the Transformers bodies floating lifelessly in Oord Space. "Perhaps you think you are on even bargaining terms with us?" Turnover waves his hands quickly, "No no no, we fight for a reason, we fight for peace and the decepticons want to destroy everything, we just want to try and make things back before this war happened." Poor kid and nievity. "We only try and do what is right, but you held us hostage-- if we held one of your own hostage, wouldn't you have done the same?" Dominic Duncan holds up a hand to Turnover. "wait a minute. Threatening the live of people in Oord space?" he says before walking over towards Goole. "perhaps if you spoke to us...instead of threatened us....we wouldn't BE in this situation." "Why can't we all just get along?" Lww-Zard pipes up, still half-hidden behind Monstereo's leg. "We be willing to help you if you need help... Even after what you did. It not be too late to find common ground, not be tool ate." Jayson Redfield steps in front of Turnover protectively as he glowers at Goole. He's actually somewhat unfamiliar with the situation, although he's been told of what's been going on, so for now he goes quiet. Monstereo strides forward and moves a finger of one hand down upon the briefcase lid in order to slam it shut while seperating Goole from it with a gentle push of his other hand. "Whoh Nelly. Don't get Enter-Key happy trying to control-alt-delete my people." Mark Dowell clenches his fists, teeth clenched. "Go ahead! Blow my body up! I'm not going to serve you! And don't try to confuse the issue! We know why you're really here! You're invading this planet! Well, guess what? We'll stop you just like we stop the Decepticons every day!" Mark is not a diplomat. Turnover is silenced and then stepped in front of, his eyes darting side to side, as Jetfire brought up a good point, "Wait-- hurt your people.." How was that possible? They didn't activate any weapons, Earlier he just scanned, which failed—and then soundwave did what he did.. however same results.. It didn't add up! "Everyone, just stop, Let Goole explain! Please!" Yea—this was now getting out of hand... Take the warriors to start the fight and the techs to try and keep it cool. Inspector Goole fixes Dominic with a glare. "You speak from ignorance sir, you do not know what is at stake. You wheel and you weedle and you trick, and when that does not work, you turn to hollow, empty words. He scowls as Monstereo snaps his briefcase shut, opening it again with a click. "I would remind you that any, /any/ endangerment of my good self will result in severe consequences" he states firmly to the Junkion with a voice of ice. "And unlike you, we ARE a people of our word!" With a deft flick, the screen on the laptop zooms in on the image of Lee-Zard floating in the void, weak and defenseless. "You, young boy?" Goole mutters. "Do /you/ think actions should have consequences?" Joe Bumble walks forward. "Inspector, can I speak to you in private?" He asks, watching him. "This is getting out of hand." He asks, watching the being. "Please. I have not wronged you, so you can trust me atleast." He says softly and calmly. "Each action has an equal an opposite reaction," Lee-Zard quotes. "Us trying to get our bodies back is an appropriate response from them being taken, isn't it?" He says, then pauses, deep in thought. He has a history of saying the right thing at the right time, let's hope he's still got The Touch. (you've got the touch! dun da, dun da, you've got the powaaah) "Me, Lee-Zard is not afraid of the consequences. Me was trying to help my friends, no matter the cost." Soundwave lies there. Go figure. Turnover moves past Jayson when Goole turns the screen on Lee-zard, "No stop! Don't hurt him-- it.." His heart takes a beat, "It wasn't his fault! It was none of there faults! Just stop! We just want to survive.. don't hurt him!" Turnover grits his teeth in concern, "..lets just talk this over.. please.. I'm.. I'm a scientist.. I'm sure we can come to some agreement right?" One in doubt, try science? Dominic Duncan says, "You're generalizing us, Goole...or whatever your name is. Did you ever think that to us, you're a race of hostage-takers bent on either killing us or bending us your will by whatever means necessary? You expect us to JOIN you when you're holding our bodies for ransom, then you speak in cryptic riddles, like us endangering your lives and taking the bodies of your warriors when, all you really had to do was ask us to hang onto them until you came here to pick them up? When Bumblebee and I switched bodies...we were trying to find a way to REVERSE the process. Then apparently, if reports serve me right, you came by, WHILE I was getting the data, and said 'join you or die'. Right?"" Peace Kepher's face pales when she sees the screen, especially when it focuses on Lee-Zard, and the fact that some are still trying to talk/threaten the Inspector despite what's going on--especially the intent behind what the Inspector's doing. /Dammit, you lot--just SHUT UP,/ she silently growls to herself, but remains back. She is not at fault here, and she /warned/ them of retaliation if they tried anything. Unfortunately, the old saying goes true here--Nobody listens to the medic. Inspector Goole is in no mood for negotiations, it seems as he stares at Lee, before snapping his attention to Dominic. "Again sir," he exclaims, straightening his bowler cap, to cause a patch of darkness over his eyes. "Again, you seem to be under the impression that the bargaining table is level. it is /not/" He gazes down at the fallen body of Soundwave. "Should the leader take the responsibility, do you think? Is that the burden of command, to be forever looking over your shoulder at the foolhardy actions of your subordinates?" As he says this, his finger hits a key, and the screen zooms in on the image of Galvatron, floating serenely in the void. And then, whatever it is that is filming the Transformers there lets loose a blinding flash of lightning at Galvatron's body, causing it to crackle, the armour blackening and snapping as the defenseless form starts to fry. Then the beam shuts off, leaving the Decepticon leader still floating there, smoke curling off his form and into the void. "Was THAT right?" Goole snaps, gaze cutting across those in the room. "His body will probably survive, IF our demands are met. But is that sufficient?" He tips his gaze to Peace Kepher Mark Dowell clenches his fists, ready and willing to punch the Inspector's head in, but he's not quite mad enough to attack him yet. "You're... just a bunch of thugs!" "This planet isnt ours to give. If you want this planet, then your talking to the wrong people. And we will rather die then serve another race again. So in the end, if you destroy those bodies, you will lose and once again fail in claiming this planet. "Now do you want to report that to your people?" Joe Bumble says. "In the end, we will regain our forces, and how much do you want to bet, we will still remember what your race did to us?" Turnover just steps back as he tries to burn Galvatron's body and bites his bottom lip, he takes another step back, ending up beside Jayson. He wasn't sure what to say anymore or what to do. These people were angry..very.. angry.. Anything with a radio starts to emit a collection of pops and whistles, unpatterned at first and then growing in intensity. With a howl of feedback, the downed form of Soundwave starts to move, red glowing optic returning to life. The cry of feedback stops abruptly as the Cybertronian finds his feet, and with a distorted voice echoed by speakers all over the room, the communicators speaks. "Armatage Sloor," he announces, turning to face the human-shaped alien, "Assuming negotiating posture for Cybertronian race. Name your terms." Monstereo just shakes his head. "What a maroon." Lee Zipperman flinches again as Galvaron's body is fried, but also relieved it's no longer his own body taking center stage. They're certainly bot getting anywhere by argueing with Goole/Sloor. Hearing the terms will at the very least, stall for more time. "Stay behind me," Jayson murmurs to Turnover, keeping his gaze on Goole. And then...Soundwave moves? Didn't see *that* coming. Dominic Duncan just.....rubs at his temples and turns away. "The more I try to understand humans, Cybertronians and whatever he is....the more I get a headache. I'm almost praying for death now." he says walking away towards another part of the field. Peace Kepher watches the display on the monitor, her expression going blank, then looks at Goole evenly. "All Autobots, Junkions, and humans--this is a medical order of the highest ranking. For the sake of your very lives, just /shut the fraggin' hell up/," she states coldly. Her expression remains very neutral as she returns her full attention to Goole, although it seems as though Soundwave seems to've finally decided to wake up. "What are your demands, Inspector?" She asks quietly, no hint of hostility or much of any emotion in her voice. Will stalling really help? The Inspector is still shaking with barely contained anger, glaring to each of the figures in the room in turn, as if making up his mind, hearing all the insults poured his way. And then Soundwave speaks. "You HAVE my terms sir!" the Inspector shouts, his brow furrowed as he fixes the Cybertronian with a gaze of steel. "Do not insult ME with such petty wordplay. You HAD the rules, you HAD the terms, and you BROKE them!" The screen pans across the floating bodies, ending up on the form of Turnover. "I think this is fair" the Inspector hisses. "WE, after all keep our word, do not think us full of empty bluster. Do you have ANYTHING left to say?" This last statement is directed at the humanized Turnover in front of him Monstereo says, "You said 6 days. How is this keeping your word?" Mark Dowell glances up at Soundwave as he rises up. "Ah... oh... I guess it worked... not sure if that's a good thing..." Lee Zipperman decides to keep his mouth shut. It appears to liitle Lee that the visitor, Sloor, is asking each of us in turn for a comment, let's let him ask what he wants to ask. Soundwave drops to a knee so he can lean forward to look at the Inspector on his level. "Negative. No contact with Sloor. Renegotiate." Turnover's eyes go wide, those gold eyes staring at his lifeless form. He remains silent for a moment, "..my.." His eyes start to look watery, "You CAN'T!" He yells, "Please! DON'T!" His body stiffens in fear, "...please...I--" Fear, sadly was taking over.. fear of being trapped in a body that was dieing... Judging from Turnover's reaction, Jayson comes to the conclusion that the body on the screen is his. He watches him silently, then turns to Goole and growls, "Don't you DARE..." Oh yeah. He's getting *really* ticked now. Dominic Duncan turns back towards Sloor and crosses his arms. Any attempts to intervene would only be met by hostility anyways. Peace Kepher's expression remains unchanged and she takes her own advice and remains silent, but one hand twitches faintly as her jaw clenches a tic. She knows he most certainly /would/ dare, and also knows that no amount of talking or threatening is going to change it... Ohhhh, she's not going to be a happy medic after this is done. Mark Dowell finally realizes what Goole is up to as he glances at the screen. "Hey, hold on! What the hell did he do to you, besides have his body be STOLEN by you people? You wanna make an example of somebody, do it to me! I *like* being human!" Inspector Goole stares at Turnover impassionately, his face set in stone. "Oh, but I can" he speaks simply, his voice harsh and echoing. "Did you really think there would be no consequences for trying to cross us? Did you? Will you take the reward without the risk? I trust this to be a lesson to you /ALL/." And then, to Monstereo, he gives a rare smile and simply tips his hat. Then he presses another key, and the same arc of electricity spurts from the filming device, Turnover's helpless body bucking on the screen as it is surrounded with the electric force, smoke rising from its lifeless mouth as cracks appear on the armour. But this time the beam does not turn off, and suddenly, like the cracking of a dropped egg, Turnover's body splits, blackening until it is seared away into shards that simply float in the void. The Inspector leaves the image on the screen to linger. "Remember" he states simply. "We do not bluff. Touch me, renege on our conditions, and you /will/ die" Monstereo shakes his head sadly. Helpless to squash Goole or take away his means of killing. He glances to the burnt out spacebridge. At least that is smething he could help with. Joe Bumble growls as he turns to him. "You do that to nyone else, and I will do more then touch you, you worthless piece of scrap." He says as he seems to become as enraged as the inspector. "I may be small, but I swear to you, if you dare harm another body, Be it Decepticon or Autobot, I will hunt you down and slaughter your entire race." He says, almost vibrating with anger. Turnover stares in sheer shock, only whispering, "..no.." the red head falls down to his knees. Tears actually start to roll down his face as he just stares, "..no..." He then goes silent as he continues to stare at what now remains, not blinking, not even really moving, just in sheer state of mental shock, even though the tears keep falling down. Now matter how much he wanted to scream, yell, cry, punch the guy, he.. couldn't move, his body just wouldn't move. Locked up tight, he was—frozen. Then at last he lowered his head and actually started to chockingly cry. He was.. now stuck like this, in a dieing body—and when he died.. he was gone for good. No rebooting, no restart button.. nothing.. he was.. dead... Peace Kepher is simply a living statue at this point, save for a slight tremor in her hands, her eyes pinned on the screen. "BUMBLEBEE! SHUT UP!" She snaps, her voice now at subzero. "SHUT THE HELL UP. Think about what you lot have just done, for once in yuor lives. You've just caused the death of a comrade!" In a small, quiet tone, like a radio announcer whispering on the AM band from a city miles away, in a voice that lacks distortion except for a flat hollowness, Soundwave emits to Goole (and possibly very few, very nearby), "Well-played, Inspector. Now provide your solution." Mark Dowell gapes as Turnover's Cybertronian body is disintegrated. "...Murderers! You're all a bunch of... of murderers! You put on fancy suits and talk high and mighty, but that's what you are! I'd take a Decepticon over you!" "WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHAT /WE/ DONE!? THEY DID THAT!" Joe Bumble screams as he watches her. "My patience for this game has ended. You think your big and mighty? Well let me tell you, even the smallest creature has the advantage of winning." He says as he seems to be barely containing his rage. Dominic Duncan says, "I agree with markdown and Bumblebee. You can destroy my body next. I'll take death."" Jayson Redfield looks on in horror. "Turnover...my god..." He could only watch—there was nothing he could do, no way he could help! He is traumatized by what he has just witnessed, and it takes a few moments for him to regain his senses. He kneels beside the now permanently human Turnover and hugs him tightly. Monstereo doesn't mention the possibility of building a new body and using an empty laser core for Turnover, since it'd be useless without access to the technology that is capable of transfering Lasercore spirit into hooman body. Peace Kepher's tone is still subzero, her eyes still pinned on the screen. "He would not have died had you lot not pulled that stunt--and for what? Returning one Decepticon to normal, nothing more," she states, her tone as flat as Soundwave's ever can get. "You lot as good as killed him the instant you activated that machine--and I warned you in particular, Bumblebee. So get off of your righteous indignation already and ask yourself--was it worth it to lose a comrade to restore an enemy?" Dominic Duncan says, "are you /quite/ finished, Peacekeeper?"" Monstereo twiddles his thumbs. "Well seeing as you're all slated to get your bodies blown up and your current bodies terminated once the time limit is up and we still don't agree to conquer Earth for them... Doing anything /is/ better than nothing... unless you want to be the first to start attacking the people of Earth." Monstereo says, "So forgive me for giving a damn." "And you would rather us serve them? Like our ancestors had to serve the Quintessions? No, I would rather take death and be free then live a life of slavery." Joe Bumble says. "We didnt even try to return Soundwave back to normal, we tried to return Jetfire or Lee-Zard back to normal!" He screams out at Peacekeeper. "I tried to help them, I would have done what Optimius or Rodimius would have done! They would not let their friends be slaves!" Turnover tries to flinch away, but he finds himself in the end curling against Jayson, crying against him, nearly in a ball against him. It was someone, someone he could cry on, a shoulder to lean on. By Cybertronian creation sense.. he was only maybe.. eight months old. To many cybertronians he was a 'kid' as a creation, perhaps just a sheer 'baby' to others. Still learning, still growing, then BOOM all gone, his body no more, now stuck in an alien form on a place that.. he felt now.. just so alone with. He whispered softly, "..why.." Turnover then hands curled onto Jayson, "...dad..." Not that he was calling jayson dad.. but—he wanted his father, his creator... Mark Dowell turns around and addresses Peacekeeper, his tone more level, but still simmering. "Peace... none of us asked for this to happen. Bumblebee is right. The *aliens* did this, and they are solely to blame. Tossing accusations at the other eggheads--no offense--when they're just trying to get out of this sorry situation isn't helping anyone. And for the record, if it was my body that had been blown up, I would accept it as a casualty of war." As the Transformers argue, Goole has made his exit, briefcase smartly in hand as his footsteps click along the ground slowly, in time, away Soundwave looks down at the ground, optic blazing, gears turning in his head. Planting a fist down on the ground, he stands up straight, watching the Inspector go, knowing he only has few precious seconds before the Autobots realize that the only nonhumanized Cybertronian within earshot -other- than Soundwave is Monstereo and start calling in whatever reinforcements they can find.